Happy!

The happy dance has been going on at my house today!  I was so excited that one of my units is in today's Teachers Pay Teachers newsletter! 

In celebration of being in this Sunday's TPT newsletter, I am offering a flash sale. Purchase the "Springing Into Literacy Stations" at it's normal price of $5.95 and get the companion piece of "Buzzing Into Literacy Stations" FREE. That is... 10 literacy stations for less than $6.00. WOW!!! WHAT A BARGIN! Just send me your e-mail (mine is found on the last page of the unit) and I will e-mail the 2nd one to you. Sale ends at midnight April 30th.

Click here to purchase.

.Click here to see more info about the freebie.

I'm sure you're not as excited as I am, but you can still take advantage of this awesome offer!  LOL

Thanks,
Cynthia

Preparing for next year or survival mode?

As I mentioned in my post Thursday, I am a planner and a fixer.  I am planning for the beginning of the next school year and fixing some problems that arose at the beginning of this past year.  When all of second grade was moved to a new building this past year, we discovered during pre-planning, that the workroom parapro did not work during pre-planning (at our other building, she worked the same days as the teachers).  Alas, we were scrambling to come up with items since we weren't allowed to copy or laminate.  I have fixed that problem this year, by getting some things ready for my beginning of the year decorations and also the copies I will need to start off with.  As usual, my brain is on overdrive and that got me to thinking and wondering, does anyone else try to get all of this beginning of the year stuff ready now so you can enjoy your summer with peace of mind?  If so, check this out:

My newest TPT unit

This also got me to wondering about $$.  At our school, we have not received money to purchase items for several years.  I used to always buy new things to decorate my door, bulletin board, etc. every year.  Of course, I had to buy all new coordinating items as well.  The beginning of the year had to be pretty!  (Still does...now it just comes out of my own pocket.)

SO...from one teacher to another, I am willing to help others out by including these items and make a "Back to School" packet to meet your needs/theme.

Click on the picture to see more details.

Here is the table of contents of all that is included.

Here is another with a Monster Theme:

A Monstrous Welcome

I am offering all that is included with a theme of your choice for $5.95.  WOW!  I pay MUCH more when ordering all the different pieces. 

See more details here!

I can customize your order to meet your theme and can even personalize with your class name for $6.95.  Please contact me at cvautrot@gilmerschools.com if you want more details or would like to special order a packet.  If you get before your school is out, you can have it printed, laminated, and ready to go when you walk back in the door at pre-planning.  What PEACE OF MIND!!!

So, what is your mindset...preparing for next year or survival mode until the end of school?  I would love to hear what you are doing!  Leave a comment to share with others.

Cynthia

Two birds with one stone

Today I accomplished reviewing 2 ideas with one activity (two birds with one stone).  We reviewed writing a friendly letter by reviewing my anchor chart...

Next, my students used their persuasive writing skills to write a letter to their parents to persuade them to let them have a sleepover this weekend.  HAHAHA...I bet parents are not very appreciative of me tonight although I DID let them know that it was a writing assignment.

I haven't come across a lot of people that think like me.  Maybe now that I'm a part of the blogging world that will change.  How many of you think "in advance", in the future, etc?  My mind has ALWAYS seemed to work that way.  Even while I'm doing something today, I may be thinking and planning for something that might be tomorrow or maybe even months away.  (I do this for monthly menu planning and even published a book about it, but that's a blog for another day...)

Anyhow, I have been looking at the new Common Core Curriculum standards as I am on the committee to redo our standards-based report cards.  That's how I developed my newest unit to use in my classroom. 

I'm feeling very generous.  Maybe it's due to the fact that there are only 16 more days of school and one of those, I will be in the above mentioned committee meeting?  Anyway, go here to download for free!!!

I would love to hear from you...how far in advance do you plan for things whether at school or in your personal life?

How do you get ideas???

I am linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies!


I am curious...How do you get your creative ideas??  Mine pop out at me from the most unlikely place sometimes.  Case in point, yesterday afternoon when I got home, I saw that my dear hubby had set the empty cereal box on the countertop.  To make matters worse, it was the same countertop over top of the trashcan!!!  GRRRR...Now, how much harder could it have been to put the box into the trash?  I pick it up and I'm grumbling and growling to myself about the injustice aggravation of it all, when...EPHIANY!!!  I find myself looking at the Captain Crunch box

 and all the cute activities on the back of the box and I hear myself saying to my students, "You can read anything you want.  I don't care what it is.  It can even be a box of cereal!!!"  Eureka!!!  Just like that my latest unit is born!

So, I decided it was time for another freebie for all of you wonderful, fabulous, stalkers followers and I posted it in my TPT store.  Go here to get your copy now.  All you need is some empty cereal boxes to have fun during your literacy centers next week.    This would be great to use for end-of-the-year fun activities (or anytime for that matter!)

Speaking of it...

Only 17 more days for students at my school.  How about you?  I'm linking up with Tessa over at Tales From Outside the Classroom.  Go on over to check out lots of teachers end-of-the-year ideas to help get you through the last few days. 

I think the end of the year is getting to all of us.  I had one of my brightest students tell me a wrong answer today and she said, "I knew that.  I guess my mind is slipping."  To which I replied that she was too young to already have that problem.  Her reply - "My mom forgets stuff all the time.  This just proves I really do belong to her!"  lol

Have a good evening!  (And start eating that cereal so you'll have some empty boxes for next week!)

Cynthia

Writing, writing, writing...

Writing, writing, writing... As we wind down our school year, like everyone else across the country, we are reviewing everything like crazy.  One thing in particular that we continue to work on daily is writing.  In Georgia, the students have a writing component to the state testing in 3rd grade, so helping get the lovies ready in 2nd is the least we can do!  My students have been revisiting Informational Writing.  They have enjoyed writing about different kinds of animals.

Lisbeth researched butterflies.

 Gracie wanted to know more about tigers.

Still need to work on doing away with 1, 2, 3, etc...

Oops...The transfer of changing to notebook paper is still hard for some to understand we no longer start at the edge of the paper!

YEAH!  Kelsi is trying on those paragraphs.  I can tell where she has indented.

We're getting there!

In honor of my student's great work, my "Wild About Informational Writing" unit on my TPT store will be on sale for the rest of this week.  It is normally $4.95, but will be on sale for $3.50 until Friday.

Click here to view more information and to purchase.

Common Core Posters are included with the unit as well as graphic organizers and writing templates for a variety of subjects in this 44-page unit.  It is one of my best sellers!

Come back tomorrow to see what else I've got to share.  I've been taking pictures like crazy and have a list of things I want to blog about.

See you soon,

Cynthia

Craftivity and Birthday Link-up

All is right with the world!  Or, at least, with my little world.  We are finally back on our normal schedule, testing is behind us, and we are in the home stretch of the school year.  Only 19 more days.  That is so hard to believe.  The older I get, and the longer I teach, the faster the year seems to speed by.

We had such a fun day today.  The students completed a craftivity I made of sunshine to display on our door.  We got lots of compliments from other teachers.  Several even asked me if it was a "Pinterest" idea.  (No, but it's about to be as soon as I have a chance to pin it!!!  hahaha...)  Feel free to pin it for me also!  :-)

And, you know me, of COURSE, I had to turn it into a TPT unit.

You can go here to purchase.

Denise over at Sunny Days in 2nd Grade is having a

How do you celebrate birthdays in your classroom?  I make Birthday Baggies for each student.  I got a brand-new student today (with only 4 weeks of school left) and low and behold, it was his birthday.  Just in time to post for this blog.

 

Here are the things that were inside the bag.  I always stock up on school supply during the Back-to-School sale in the fall and then I have it throughout the year.

Usually, we start off our day by having everyone make a birthday card for the birthday student.

Well, I'm off to Zumba (even though I would rather go home and get in a hot tub as it's been chilly here all day!)

See you soon,

Cynthia



Buy 1 Get 1 Free!

Hello Everyone!

Happy Weekend.  I am so glad to get this week behind me.  This past week was CRCT for the 3rd and 4th graders.  (We gave ours the week before.)  This meant that our whole schedule was crazy and out of whack.  The students were so confused and I wasn't far behind them.  We ate lunch 2 hours earlier than normal, reading was only half the time, math was at a different time of the day as was recess.  We got NO specials all week long which meant no breaks for the teachers.  We received no EIP, special ed, or ESOL services because all of those teachers were helping give the test.  You talk about a LOOOONNNGG week...it WAS!!!!  On top of all of that, we were given the mock CRCT's back and had to grade all of them by hand.  Can you say M-O-V-I-E?? 

Okay, got my griping and venting, out of the way.  Sorry you had to listen read all of that!

I was hoping for a beautiful weekend.  We have recently purchased my family's fishing place in Horseshoe Beach, Florida and we were going to make the 6 1/2 hour trip just to go down and enjoy for the weekend, but alas, they are calling for severe thunderstorms.  Instead, I am at home catching up on laundry and housework (it's raining here too).

I am working on some cute craftivities for my students to do this week and will be back later to share those.  In the meantime, for those of you who might have missed my 24-hour flash sale on my newest unit, I have divided it into 2 units and included all pages in black and white as well as color.  I realized how much color ink this will use and thought you might like to have the option of printing it on colored construction paper instead  or maybe do a mixture of both.  Both units are over 100 pages long and each contains 11 stations/activities with worksheets.  For this weekend, purchase one, send me an e-mail, and I will send you the other FREE.  That is less than 50cents PER station...wow!!!  Can't get any better savings than that!!!!

Here is the math unit... Fun in the Sun Math.

Click here to purchase.

Here is the companion piece...More Fun in the Sun with Literacy.

Click here to see more.

Last, but certainly not least...if you just want a freebie (and who doesn't??) here is a freebie from the Literacy Packet.

Click here to download.

And as always, I love to hear back from you.  If you like what you see, please become a follower here and on my TPT store.  Remember, I'm a veteran teacher of 23 years with TONS of ideas in my head.  I just can't make them into products fast enough...lol.

Thanks,

Cynthia

Thanks for the help!

Thanks everyone who got in on my 24-hour special.  I have made a final decision... I have divided the unit up into 2 units -  a math (Math Fun in the Sun) and a literacy (More Fun in the Sun).  They are $10 for each unit.  For all of you frugal people (like me...I am the QUEEN of frugal) this is still less than $1 per station.  I will be posting them individually as well, but you won't get the same savings as in the bundle.  ;-)

Fun in the Sun

More Fun in the Sun with Literacy

The files include each page in black/white in case you want to print on colored construction paper and save some of that color ink!  :-)
Thanks again!

Cynthia

I have an AWESOME 24-hour special for all of you, my faithful followers.  I just finished my HUGE unit for the end of the school year.  It is called Fun in the Sun (with a summertime theme).  There are 11 Literacy centers and activities with worksheets and 11 for math.  All in all, there is a total of 109 pages.  This unit is jam-packed.  For 24 hours ONLY, I am offering it at the discount price of $10.  That is less than 50 cents per center.  Other than a freebie, you can't find anything else that cheap!

Click here to purchase! :-)

This is the largest unit of this type I have ever posted.  I could really use some help deciding on a fair price.  It took me almost 2 weeks to make and I don't want to under-value my work.  On the other hand, as a VERY frugal teacher, I don't want the price to be more than others are willing to spend.  If you purchase this unit before 7:00 Wednesday night (EST), leave a comment on my TPT store and rate it, AND come back to my blog (or send me a private e-mail) and leave me a comment about what you think is a reasonable price to pay for it (after you review it of course), I will also throw in a freebie of any item $3 or less in my store.  Sounds like a great deal to me!  I so appreciate you helping me out!

My previews were so large, I couldn't upload them all, so here they are so you can see what is included:

Click here to purchase. :-)

Thanks so much!

Cynthia

Spread the Love

WHEW!!!!  I am sooo thankful that this week is over.  What a way to return from Spring Break, by having to give the BIG test.  Thank goodness today was the last day of the CRCT.  Some of my poor, precious darlings looked like they had been put through the wringer by the time it was over.  (I have to confess, I felt the same way!!!)

Well, once again, we've not done anything in the classroom this week, since we were told to keep it as fun and relaxing as possible this week.  The weather was so nice we had extra recess, but you don't want to read about THAT in this blog.   So, instead, once again, I am highlighting the newest blogs I've come across today.  I admit, I found them on TPT by the quotes they have listed on their store page.

The first is in need of LOTS of love.  Kelley is a brand new blogger.  I am only her 6th follower.  I am still plenty green new enough at this blogging that I get excited everytime I gain a new follower (and yes, I check several times a day), so I KNOW she will be excited when lots of you go over and become a follower...

She's doing better than I was when I first started...Look, she already has a button!  :-)

Mrs. Santana over at The Learning Tree has joined up with A Cupcake for the Teacher for a Giveaway, so check out her blog and join for a chance to win something!

 Last, but certainly not least is Lacey over at Wild About Teaching.  Now, she has MORE followers than I do, so I need to be chatting her up and getting some ideas.  I know, she would still love to get some love and more followers, so hop on over and check it out. 
 Isn't this fun?  I love finding new blogs.  Next week, I have lots of fun activities planned in my classroom and will take lots of pictures, but in the meantime, isn't this fun finding new blogs just by clicking on what I post? Have a great weekend and check back tomorrow.  I'll highlight some more of my newest finds!  :-)